Review: With Brave Wings by Cara Dee

With Brave Wings

by

Cara Dee

Sequel to Breaking Free – Book II of II.

What happens once you’ve broken free?

Sophie Pierce has shed every part of her old life. She has said goodbye to her father, the friends she once partied with, and even the man she may have lost her heart to. Now, it’s time for her to spread her wings and become the person she wants to be, and she’s more than ready to work for it. But much like the paparazzi Sophie has come to despise, the past will sneak up on her—much sooner than she could’ve imagined. It’s only a matter of months before she learns that her final night in Vancouver was never the end at all. It was the beginning.

When Tennyson Wright lets Sophie go, he knows something has to change. He’s lost sight of who he is, and the wakeup call isn’t pretty. Deciding to take a page from Sophie’s book, he begins a journey of self-discovery, though everything comes to a screeching halt when he learns through the tabloids that the girl he can’t stop thinking about is pregnant.

Their romantic relationship may have ended, but soon their co-parenting responsibilities bring them together to play the Hollywood game by their own rules.

“Oh, right.” He picked up the roll and shoved it into his mouth. “She lives in Berlin, so we don’t see each other often. We text and Skype and stuff. She’s got two cute kids, but I hate when they visit our parents in Pittsburgh. Makes my folks wonder when I’m gonna settle down.”

“Poor you,” Sophie mocked. “So you don’t want kids of your own?”

“Fuck no, I’d ruin them.” Noah went back to flipping channels. “Unless they pop out as hockey fans. Then we’re good.”

She snorted a giggle and ate some more.

“Seriously, though.” He pointed his fork at her. “You sure you’re not pregnant?”

“Oh my God, yes.” Sophie rolled her eyes. “I think I’d know if I was growing a person. Besides, I haven’t had sex since July—whatever date the wrap party was.”

It was mid-November now.

“The twenty-fifth,” he murmured, pensive. “So…that would make Tennyson the dad.”

She ignored the pregnancy crap and stared intently at her food. She’d never said anything out loud to Noah about her and Tennyson, though most people had their suspicions.

“I’m not pregnant, Noah.”

*

“You’re pregnant, Ms. Pierce.”

Sophie sat in her doctor’s office and stared, waiting for the punch line.

The doctor went on with a nod. “That’s what’s been causing your body to change so quickly. You are pregnant.”

Sophie waited some more, and then she let out a nervous laugh. “Be serious, please. What’s wrong with me?”

“There is absolutely nothing wrong with you,” he told her patiently. “You are simply pregnant. Now, since I know you have a demanding schedule, I took the liberty and made you an appointment with a colleague for an ultrasound—right after we’re done here.”

She pursed her lips. Her brain was completely blank aside from the word “pregnant” going on a loop.

There was no way.

She was only twenty-one. She hadn’t had sex in…almost four months. Four fucking months.

“I imagine this is coming as a surprise for you.” The doctor went through a stack of papers that sat on his desk. “I have the records here from your doctor in Vancouver, and you’ve said your period’s been irregular?” With every word the doctor spoke, more color drained from Sophie’s face. “Due to your previous condition with undernourishment, that can obviously affect your ability to get pregnant, but it’s far from impossible—”

“I’m on the pill!” she blurted out.

All of a sudden, her breaths came out fast and shallow.

Holy shit, this couldn’t be happening.

She and Tennyson had been protected, goddammit. They’d used condoms until they’d spoken about safety. They’d both been clean, and she was on the pill.

“Did you ever miss taking one?” the doctor asked gently. “Remember, birth control is never one hundred percent.”

“Oh my God,” Sophie whimpered.

*

Coming out of the bathroom after his shower, Tennyson fastened his watch and tapped it pointedly for Asher to get off the damn phone. Tennyson would’ve been more patient if it weren’t for the fact that this was his vacation and he was hungry as fuck.

Asher nodded and held up a finger. “Okay, that’s great,” he told whomever he was on the phone with. “No, I was only surprised because she’s worked so hard. But it’s good that she’s not canceling.” There was a pause, and Tennyson wondered if they were discussing Sophie. “Rescheduling is fine, and have the interviewer fly out if she wants to stay in LA for whatever reason.”

By the time he wrapped up the call, Tennyson had dressed in a pair of jeans and a hoodie, and he sat down on the edge of his bed to find his eye drops in his toiletry bag.

“What’s up?” he asked.

Asher’s brow furrowed and he scrolled down on his phone. “Sophie. I need to call her tomorrow. Remember I thought she was canceling a bunch of appointments?” Tennyson frowned and nodded, and Ash went on. “She’s not—but she’s rescheduling, and I don’t know why.”

Tennyson didn’t know what to say, other than he was worried. Ever since she’d put her diva antics and princess behavior behind her, she’d been nothing but accommodating. She always pushed herself to be her absolute best.

“You ready to go eat?” Ash asked.

“Yeah.” Tennyson ducked into the bathroom real quick to insert some drops into his eyes, and then he grabbed his wallet before they left.

On the way to the restaurant, he made a mental note to call Sophie when he got back to the hotel. If something was wrong, he wanted to be there for her.

The desert town was lit up for Christmas, but it didn’t really feel like the holiday had arrived.

“Hold on.” Asher grabbed Tennyson’s shoulder as they were passing a bodega. “What the fuck is this?” He walked over to a newsstand and snatched up a magazine.

Upon seeing it was a tabloid, Tennyson rolled his eyes. “Since when do you read gossip?”

Asher turned and slapped the magazine to Tennyson’s chest. “Since I learned your ex is pregnant.”

What?

Tennyson held up the magazine and saw the headline.

“The Party Princess is Pregnant!”

Having lived and breathed the industry for years, Tennyson was ready to brush it off as bullshit, but then he saw the grainy photos. Three of them on the cover, one with a circle around Sophie’s belly. Then a centerfold that was all about her. Several photos of Sophie, Max, Brooklyn, and Maliah on the beach.

Sophie was wearing what looked like cotton shorts and a bulky sweatshirt, but at some point, she had unzipped it. And it was clear as day. Her snug top underneath the hoodie hugged a small, yet very distinct baby bump.

Photo after photo. Sophie and Maliah were tossing a tennis ball for Max to chase, and the wind blew the shirt aside. So many angles of proof. She was pregnant.

When last we left Sophie Pierce and Tennyson Wright in Cara Dee’s Breaking Free, the young starlet and the jaded director had reluctantly ended their on set affair. But in With Brave Wings, Fate has other things in mind for the couple, among them, parenthood. As Sophie’s acting career begins to take off, and Tennyson’s directorial career is once again on the rise, both Sophie and Tennyson reroute their lives to make way for their baby. Through movie production, promotional tours — despite all the demands entailed in the entertainment industry — both Sophie and Tennyson come together for the welfare of their child, Kayden. They are doting and loving parents. Eventually both Sophie and Tennyson recognize that it’s not only their commitment to Kayden that keeps them together, but that their feelings for one another have run deep from the start of their romance. While Sophie has been bravely finding herself through her own personal journey, Tennyson has rediscovered that there is much to be celebrated in his own life. Both have learned that, at any age, one can always spread their wings and soar. As Sophie says:

“I think I found peace when I stopped running,” she answered pensively. “Goals are amazing to have, but for a long time, I was always chasing something, and I didn’t even know what it was. Answers, maybe. But I realized I will never be finished. I’m a work in progress until the day I die. So I stopped running. I stopped trying to understand life and just live it instead.”

In With Brave Wings, author Cara Dee has written a delicious conclusion to Breaking Free. Sophie and Tennyson have great chemistry, and along with that, a healthy respect for one another. Tennyson stands back as he watches Sophie grow — these two are so good for one another — it puts a smile on the reader’s face. We wait for Sophie and Tennyson to wake up and admit their feelings for one another and when they do, the fireworks (i.e., oh-so-hot sex) light up the night sky. Throughout both books, Dee has written this relationship as a study of healthy growth, one of patience, one without toxicity. Not completely without some bumps in the road, what exists between Sophie and Tennyson is both believable and refreshing.

Backing up her protagonists, author Dee generously gifts us with well-fleshed out secondary characters. Surely Sophie’s best bud, Brooklyn, and Tennyson’s brother, Asher, deserve a book of their own as we’ve become invested in their story, too. And least we forget, Cara even gives us a cameo appearance of her Public Display of Everything couple, Flynn and Cory (it’s up to you to read and discover their connection to With Brave Wings).

Cara Dee is such a gifted writer — her use of chapters being titled by a location gives a real sense of the chaotic life of her characters. These people have busy lives and Dee effectively uses locales and events, combined with jumps in time, to move the story along at a rapid pace. This reader’s only complaint is that the conclusion of With Brave Wings comes much too soon. Greedy readers everywhere want more!

A thoroughly enjoyable contemporary adult story, take some time to read both Breaking Free and With Brave Wings – it’s time well spent.

* I was gifted an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. *

Book 1, Breaking Free

Book I of II.

The Hollywood scene has always fit Tennyson Wright like a too-tight sweater. A highly respected director, he has managed to avoid the games and power plays of Tinseltown. Until now. To gain more publicity for the film he’s shooting, the studio has decided a PR relationship is in order, and soon Tennyson finds himself pushed into the spotlight with one of the actresses on set. Rich, spoiled, much younger, party princess Sophie Pierce.

Sophie, famous for being infamous, got her part in the film due to her daddy, the studio chairman. But there’s more to her than wild nights and drunken tabloid photos, and she’s aching to prove it. Under Tennyson’s protective wing, she begins to navigate the uncharted territory of responsible adulthood and takes the first steps toward a legitimate, lasting fame based on her talent, not her reputation.

But in order for Sophie to truly soar on her own, she’s going to have to shed every part of her life.

There aren’t many things better than picking up my Kindle and getting completely sucked into a whole new world—where words morph into images and characters’ moods suddenly reflect my own. Aside from good plot and writing, for me, it boils down to relatable characters.

As a writer, I’m not finished until the men and women in my books come to life, until I can see them as real people, until I can connect with them. Which means I write what I want to read: everyday heroes and heroines who have the same struggles we all do. They evolve, have flaws, make mistakes and amends, learn, and find the endings they fight for.

Those are the characters who take the readers on a journey away from work, laundry, grocery shopping, and to-do lists.

When I’m not writing, researching, or brainstorming, I’m either planning my next trip (never-ending bucket list!), reading, watching hockey, or spending time with family and friends.